Psychologists and Torture, Then and Now

by Laura Melendez-Pallitto and Robert Pallitto, March 06, 2012

source:Antiwar.com


History repeats itself, Marx famously warned, first as tragedy and then as farce. In the case of U.S. torture psychologists, the “tragedy” occurred half a century ago when CIA-funded psychological research on electroshock treatment, sensory deprivation, and the like found its way into the Agency’s counterintelligence interrogation manual. The 1963 KUBARK manual and its later iterations were used widely by U.S. intelligence and disseminated to other governments in Latin America and Southeast Asia. The “farce” was played post-9/11, as psychologists became involved once again in aiding counterintelligence interrogators....The KUBARK manual cites Albert Biderman and other research psychologists as sources for the “scientific findings” that support its conclusions. Biderman, who died in 2003, was known for his studies of U.S. personnel captured by the Chinese during the Cold War. He examined the ways in which the Chinese military induced false confessions — often outlandish and implausible ones — from U.S. prisoners. Whatever one thinks today of the validity and cogency of that literature, the government used it to legitimize tactics and propositions that go well beyond the claims of the literature itself. KUBARK instructs interrogators to use protocols titled “Ivan Is a Dope,” “Alice in Wonderland,” and “Mutt and Jeff.”

...KUBARK does not describe in detail the ways in which psychological interrogation methods (“clean torture,” as Darius Rejali calls it) are done. KUBARK merely recognizes that “chemical and electrical” methods are available (though it may be more specific in the redacted portions). To see how sensory deprivation and electroshock treatment actually work on the psyche of subjects, we must look outside KUBARK itself, at the research findings of scientists and the accounts of victims themselves. Naomi Klein interviewed one such victim, who unwittingly became a research subject for Dr. Ewen Cameron of McGill University (a psychiatrist) while Cameron was treating her as a psychiatric inpatient. Cameron administered drug and electroshock therapy on his patient that left permanent, devastating injury. Many years later, she discovered the cause of her injuries when she learned of a legal settlement by the CIA paying unwitting experimental subjects for the damages they suffered. By then, she had become completely disabled as a result of her “treatment.”

...The relationship goes both ways, however. While the drafters of KUBARK certainly utilized the research results to further interrogation objectives and to instruct interrogators in other countries, the researchers themselves certainly derived benefits from the relationship. Alfred McCoy notes that CIA operatives attended conferences in order to develop relationships with research psychologists, luring them with promises of research funding...Incredibly, some of the research results from the early years of mind-control studies resurfaced post-9/11 in training protocols for Guantanamo interrogators. In 2008, The New York Times reported that Biderman’s 1957 “Chart of Coercion,” which indicates the ways that communist interrogators used such coercion to induce false confessions, was provided verbatim to trainees in 2002....Three psychologists in particular have come to the attention of the media in recent years: Drs. Leso, Jessen, and Mitchell. All three have allegedly been involved on some level (research, training, consultation, and even participation) in coercive interrogation. All three are licensed psychologists in different states. Although licensed psychologists and human rights groups have filed complaints, to date none of their licenses have been revoked. Nor have they received any kind of reprimand for their alleged involvement in torture. more:

Secret FBI, CIA Documents, Sex Videos Found At Egypt’s Terror Police HQ

source:Gizmodo
This mountain of shredded paper taking over several rooms was found inside the Egyptian Secret Police’s headquarters in Cairo on March 5, when hundreds of angry people invaded it. They called this day their Bastille Day.

An enraged population liberated prisoners still in their isolation cells, no larger than phone booths. In the process, they found torture devices, mountains of shredded documents, dozens of computers stripped from their hard drives and a stash of sex video tapes showing famous people—from actors to politicians, both Egyptians and from other countries. The videos were recorded by the secret police in hotel rooms. Nobody knows who stars in them, but I’m sure the world will know about it very soon:


more details from Egyptian chronicles:
This is an inside tour for the capital of hell , first of all the building itself is so huge , too damn huge and it includes many branches ,hospital, officers’ hostel , training and cells underground !! It is like the SS own City Stars !! A historical trivial fact the capital of hell building was designed by Dr. Farouk Al-Gohary of Ain Shams university. His page in Marefara , our own Arabic Wikipedia is negative. According to our friends who went and are still there the building is quite luxurious. We do not exactly how may underground floors are there , some speak about 3 , other speak about 8 !!

Our friends found torture devices , sex films made for famous personalities "this is so Safwat Al Sherif !!" and also Sony PlayStation !! They also found weapons and some CSF officer who was so scared and told them that he was innocent. The officer was handed to the army.
The underground prison was hard to find at first but the people found them. Some were speaking about screams from the underground prison. The cells were found , some people say they were locked electronically but they were opened. The detainees were released after being years in detention , one of them has been released there for 14 years !!!!!!!!!!! The detainees were allegedly blindfold and stayed in small cell without light !!!!!!!!!! Even the military police soldiers and officers were touched.

...An office , a bed room with a bed for two , pink bathrobe , marble bathroom and finest salons for meetings from our own budget , from our own taxes !!
I read a fearful thing online that the citizens found a room full of toys and photos for kids being tortured :(
The documents , files and reports are exposing everybody in the country.
The journalists of course took some scans "and some files" about VIPs including Ex-President Mubarak himself and his activities along with his wife Suzanne Thabet.